Thread: How noisy are dust extractors?

Just out of interest, does anybody have a cyclone fitted their 1hp dust collector?

Note: Edited accordingly, thanks BobL

Originally Posted by gmack

Just out of interest, does anybody have a cycle fitted their 1hp dust collector?

Do you mean a cyclone?

if so most 1 HP DCs don't have enough air speed to really make a cyclone work effectively.

Originally Posted by BozInOz

Other than agreeing with what others have said I don't have much to add.

I have carba 1hp, I run it on all my machines without hassle. Only one machine at a time, and with a tube length of 1.5m. (It's easy to move around.) My makita hand drill is probably louder.

I plan to upgrade soon to the 2hp trademan. I find it loses power quickly when the filter is clogged (about half a day's work) and I find it struggles with higher demand (Eg. thicknessing 6" board no worries, 10" board and have chips spewed all around the machine.)

You will get the same problems with a 2hp unit and cloth bag. I ended up getting a cartridge filter for the 1 hp dusty ( I also have one for the 2hp) - it was on special at Timbecon and well worth it. It has several times the surface area for suction due to the pleated pattern and you simply don't get the same clogging issues. Even when there is a little build up, the suction is still miles better than the cloth bag and all you do is turn the top crank handle a few times to dump the accumulated dust. Not to mention how healthier and quieter it is if you are using it inside your workshop.

I also hooked it up to the "Super Dust Deputy" cyclone system which is fixed to their 30 gallon drum ( see link below). It worked perfectly as the cyclone/drum is very air tight, and it caught several drums of chips and dust from my woodworking machines ( with nothing getting through to the filter)

Oneida Air Systems - Super Dust Deputy

Originally Posted by BobL

Do you mean a cyclone?

if so most 1 HP DCs don't have enough air speed to really make a cyclone work effectively.

I found that with a cartridge filter ( no loss of suction) and a good airtight cyclone unit , the 1 hp was definitely adequate for my Jointer/Thicknesser and Bandsaw. My tablesaw , as I mentioned before, needs more suction but that is more due to the design of the saw than anything else.

I think JIll B built her cyclone separator and used it for a while with the 1 HP dusty See this link for her innovative design

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/m...arator-103778/

To your original question it will depend quite a bit on the brand of extractor you have some are louder than others I have Coral 4 hp unit and it is not quiet I have a sound insulated enclosure outside the shed, on saying that a mate has a carba- tec 1hp unit and it makes more noise than my Coral

Originally Posted by TP1

I ended up getting a cartridge filter for the 1 hp dusty ( I also have one for the 2hp) - it was on special at Timbecon and well worth it. It has several times the surface area for suction due to the pleated pattern and you simply don't get the same clogging issues. Even when there is a little build up, the suction is still miles better than the cloth bag and all you do is turn the top crank handle a few times to dump the accumulated dust. Not to mention how healthier and quieter it is if you are using it inside your workshop.

Now that is a bit of extra info that is handy for the novice to know. Many thanks.

My concern lies not so much in the $ but in the noise levels and it seems to me that a 1 HP machine may win in that regard but that it has limitations which are in part ameliorated by having a cartridge filter.

A cartridge filter plus the plastic bags required with it double the overall price of a 1 HP unit but that of course is still heaps less than a 2 HP tradesman model and without needing any further noise suppression, it seems.

It is useful to get the $ in perspective, of course. Yesterday, I spent over $300 on tickets to a stage musical so something like a dust extractor that lasts more than the duration of a stage show is not such a big deal in the overall scheme of things. That is where other factors, especially noise management, come into play.


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Hi Charleville, you forgot the most important aspect - your health! Are your nose, throat and lungs worth spending $300 -$400 to keep healthy? Get a 2hp with a 1 micron cartridge - you won't regret it

I have the 2hp dust extractor you mention. It is pretty noisy and I could not put it outside. I built a enclosure, https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/r...n-sound-46103/, that exhausts to the outside. Furthermore, I introduced an air extraction fan, https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/w...tration-94184/.
I am happy now that the dust extractor noise is significantly reduced and the air is cleaner.
Zelk

I converted an FM-300 2 HP dusty from carbatec into a cyclone and ran the blower exhaust to the atmosphere. I find the majority of the noise comes from the air stream exiting the exhaust, so I direct it up to the sky to make things easier on the neighbours.

My experience is that the cyclone catches more dust that the standard 5 micron filter bag ever did without the rapid loss of suction as the filter clogs, so I have no qualms about not using a filter on the current setup. There probably isn't too much difference in noise between my system now and as it was originally.

As to your original questions: I would definitely recommend some sort of dust extraction and would agree with earlier comments that a (my) 2 HP system is quieter than the shop vac I also own but don't really use any more.

mikm; do you have a picof your cyclone set up?

Originally Posted by BozInOz

mikm; do you have a picof your cyclone set up?

Yep.
I turned one of these into this before permanently mounting it under the house.

This topic gets scarier the more that people post to it.


What I find scary is that it seems that to manage down the noise of a 2HP dust extractor, people find themselves building the dust collection system equivalent of the "USS Enterprise."

Admittedly, some of these constructions are about adding cyclones but the amount of plumbing involved and weather-proof external housing construction or sound proof internal construction sure is daunting. All of the installations are pretty impressive and a real credit to their constructors. (Many thanks for adding immense value to this discussion by sharing them with us. )


I have never stood beside a 2 HP machine but in watching Youtube videos demonstrating various dust extractors, most commonly American videos featuring 1 1/2 HP machines, I have to admit that the noise levels emanating from those demo videos would be hard to take all day for me as well. I like to sit in my garage creating sawdust all day long with music or podcasts keeping me company. (except at lunch-time when I do go and discover what my wife has been doing all morning. )


The other question that is starting to puzzle me - and I freely admit to not having yet read the science or maths behind the design of dust extraction - is that if a 1 HP dust extractor is rated at 650 CFM and the basic model 2 HP Carba-Tec model is rated at 1200 CFM, then by the time that all of that long plumbing to an externally situated dust collector, elbows , blast gates, etc is added, is the suction performance still worth the effort over just using a mobile 1 HP machine immediately adjacent to the work. ie how much of that 1200 CFM is lost in the plumbing?


Added to this is the point raised by TP1 and that is the benefit of adding a cartridge filter to the standard dust collector.

That is, it seems to me that people add cyclones mostly to avoid having to clean filters and maintain plenty of suction but my reading of the advertising blurb and watching Youtube videos of cartridge filters suggests to me that they are dead easy to clean without removing them from the machine - cleaning being done by cranking a handle or similar mechanism every now and then to shake the blazes out of the cartridge filter and dump the dust into its bag. That these filters are 1 micron filters instead of the standard 5 micron bag filter makes their use much more viable internally.

So if it is that easy to clean the filter, does adding a cyclone then become unnecessary?

All of this is starting to suggest to me that in the next couple of days, if I go into Carba-Tec and get a 1 HP machine with added cartridge filter and no more than 1.5 metres of hose, I well may be happier with that purring right beside me than buying a bigger unit and having to engage in a major construction effort to use it in comfort, especially aural comfort.


[Disclaimer: I know that the 2 HP Carba-Tec Tradesman
model is a 1500 CFM machine rather that the 1200 CFM used in the example above, applicable to their economy model. ]



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people find themselves building the dust collection system equivalent of the "USS Enterprise."

wot he said

I use my Thien pre-separator to collect the dust, rather than having to undo the metal band and clip holding the plastic bag on the 2hp DC and then empty the plastic bag, then re-do the clip. That is a real PIA job that I never seem to get quite right, so that dust does come out of th top of the bag in places. With the dust in the bottom of the drum of the pre-separator, it is a lot easier to handle.

Plus, I am prolonging the life of the DC impellor - not much dust goes through it at all. Over the past 6 months I have emptied the pre-separator drum a couple of times at the local tip, yet there would not be more than a couple of cups of dust in the plastic bag of the DC.

The fine most dangerous dust still goes throught to the DC and out through the top bag into the atmosphere. The use of a 1 micron cartridge would minimise this danger to your nose, throat and lungs